namasteph yoga blog

Someone just left a comment on my blog here saying that Saul David Raye’s single yoga classes are now $23 at Exhale in Venice. I haven’t confirmed this for myself, but I have noticed yoga prices going up in Los Angeles. Yoga West, for example, used to charge $16 for a single class and it’s now $17.

“Yogaflation” (as I’m now calling it) might make sense when times are good, but when we’re in a “Great Recession” (as they are now calling it), it seems bit counterintuitive. It may be that these yoga studios are charging more because they are getting less customers, but is that the smart thing to do?

I know the recession is hitting Los Angeles…why? Because commercial real estate is tanking and you’ll find storefronts and actually entire blocks empty and for rent now. Is this the time to be raising prices? Maybe it’s time to be lowering them.

I’ve personally curtailed my yoga classes…and it’s actually been that way since the end of 2008 when the financial crash hit. I’ve missed the kundalini yoga classes a little, but not hatha yoga for the most part.

Is paying $20 per class worth it? If you’re not buying monthly passes (which are also getting more expensive), you could end up paying $80 just to take one yoga class per week. I also have some sort of mental stopping point when it comes to yoga classes. At Yoga West, $16 seemed an OK price to pay for a single class. When it was raised just $1, my mind rebelled. It’s just too much now.

Think about it…you’re now paying upwards of $20 per class…to battle traffic…and try to stake a good spot in the class…and deal with the sweaty person next to you…and attempt to not get distracted by the outside sounds, if the yoga studio isn’t perfectly sound-insulated…and feel more pressure in class because you’re trying to keep up with the teacher or impress the sweaty person next to you…and all of this ends up taking two hours or more of time to accomplish.

Compare that to a nice quiet home practice. Less than $20 will get you a DVD by a teacher you like that you can watch over and over again to master. Or you can get an online subscription at a yoga website and watch new videos each week. Or make up your own home practice.

Whatever the format for your home yoga practice, you don’t have to fight traffic or the person next to you for floor space. You can work out for a half hour or an hour and be done. And your cost per yoga hour will be much, much less than if you were going out to classes all the time.

One good yoga video at $20 could give you a year’s worth of exercise, not just an hour and a half.

I’m personally enjoying my home yoga, and more and more I’m finding I don’t miss going to yoga class so much. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s not like I was making friends at yoga classes for the most part…I’d show up, take the class, and go home! So why the need for the expense, other than the fact that once in a while, if you are lucky, you’ll get an adjustment here and there in a hatha class?

Certainly, there is a certain high you could get sometimes in a group doing kundalini yoga, but on the flip side, doing kundalini yoga meditations at home can take you much more deeply inward because you are there, with yourself, able to go within. (Never mind the fact that if you are serious about kundalini yoga you should be doing the same yoga set each and every day on 40-day rotations as part of your personal sadhana!)

I wonder how many yoga studios are going to be able to survive in this economy what with higher prices and people cutting back. I know the yoga studio I got my teacher training at closed. I think it was because there was some sort of issue with the space…maybe the rent went up? But when a new space was not found, the place shut down. Sad.

So, take heed, yoga instructors…in this economy, if your yoga studio keeps jacking up prices you may find yourself eventually out of work. (Unless you are super famous, which is mostly none of you.)

I think the savvy yoga instructor in this day and age should consider some sort of Internet video model, where the price per class can be kept extremely low but new content can be easily added to keep it fresh.

Certainly, there will always be a need for some in-person instruction. For certain difficult poses I’m stuck on, I’d love to have some help from a teacher. But I’m more inclined to take a workshop about that problem area, or even find a yoga teacher to trade a private with, than to pay a lot of money for a yoga class where I’m not guaranteed an adjustment or personal attention anyway.

So…will yoga prices keep going up? Or start dropping to attract new customers? How this will all play out as the recession continues will be interesting.

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A note to some of you yoga teachers out there. I love you, but could you just shut up a little when teaching? There is nothing worse than getting into a pose and have the teacher chatting at you with micro-adjustments until your brain gets numb.

Sometimes you just want to breathe and turn inward. You can’t do that if the teacher is constantly yammering on with a pre-memorized set of alignment instructions, half of which are meaningless.

I would also like to suggest a ban on the following yoga language:

“Rotate your inner thighs” – can someone please tell me what the HELL this is supposed to mean? Once I am in a standing pose, all my leg energy is going into keeping me standing. I do not know how to “rotate” my leg muscles either inward or outward. They do not do that. They are either contracted or not. No rotating is going on with the actual muscle or thigh. If you want me to move my knee or adjust my hip, just say so. Telling me to move my “inner thigh” (as opposed to my “outer thigh”) means absolutely NOTHING. It just irritates me when a teacher says that. What it tells me is that they memorized something their teacher said and probably have no real clue as to what it means either.

“Draw the sacrum down” – By sacrum, are you meaning tailbone? Is it the back of my rear end you want drawn down or my whole pelvic area? What exactly do you mean by this? Do you want me to squat lower or turn my hips in a little bit so I don’t have so much swayback going on? How about something more simpler, like, “don’t stick your ass out so much.”

“Draw the shoulder blades down the back” – Hmm, last time I checked, I didn’t really have an active muscle in my shoulder blades that let me literally pull those bones down my back. So what the heck does this mean? If I pull my shoulders back, my shoulder blades appear to be going inward, not downward. So do you want me to relax my shoulders? Then just say so. “Relax your shoulders” actually means something to me. Trying to move a large plate-like skeletal structure through the sheer power of my thoughts does not.

“Lift the pelvic floor” – Are we now doing kegel exercises in yoga? What does this exactly mean anyway? If I am lifting my pelvic floor does that mean move my entire hips up? I could technically “lift my pelvic floor” by coming into a standing position from seated. See, now my pelvis is higher than it was before, right? Look, if you want me to engage in root lock then explain what that is in detail for the newbies and then just call it root lock. Lifting the pelvic floor otherwise means nothing.

Well, those are my nominations for the most overused and useless yoga phrases. I am sure I’ve missed some. Do you have others you want to share? Please post in the comments. Namaste.

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This Free Intro to Yoga Playshop will give you the information and confidence you need to start your own yoga practice, no matter what your age or fitness level.

We will start with a brief talk about the history of yoga and the different styles of yoga available. Then, you will be able to participate in a live demonstration of many popular yoga poses. No experience is necessary, and you do not have to be young, fit or flexible to join in. (In fact, you will learn what types of yoga to explore if you have physical limitations.) After the demonstration, there will be lots of time for Q&A. Plenty of personal attention will be given.

Cost: Donations are Accepted and Appreciated

Please:
* Wear comfortable clothes.
* Come equipped your own water.
* Bring a yoga mat if you have one (not required).
* Tell Friends, Family, Colleagues…

Monday, February 8, 7-9 pm

Location
The GATEWAY / a Portal for Growth & Wellness
11674 Gateway Blvd.
Suite C
West Los Angeles, CA 90064
310 – 479 – 0430

* Street Parking Only as with all group venues at The GATEWAY (ample immediate surrounding street parking). Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

RSVP Here: http://www.meetup.com/TheGATEWAYPortal/calendar/12380168/

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As I start 2010 I find myself turning more and more to kundalini yoga in my home practice, with some hatha yoga as my warm-up. I do the hatha yoga to stretch and tone, and the kundalini yoga kicks it up a notch with the powerful breath and meditation techniques. Where kundalini yoga kicks hatha’s ass is in the arena of breathing.

In hatha yoga, pranayama is often divorced from the movement. You don’t do your alternate nostril breathing while doing down dog. Sure, you might coordinate your inhale and exhale with your hatha flow, but that’s not quite the same thing as doing a breath of fire that coincides with your movement as in kundalini yoga.

Hatha yoga definitely makes my body feel good, but there is a definite endorphin rush you get when doing a lot of breath of fire in kundalini yoga (er, well, I hope it’s endorphins and not lack of oxygen to my brain!). That breath of fire, when done in conjunction with movement, seems to relieve stress and frustration in a way that hatha does not. I simply feel mentally better after doing kundalini yoga in a way I do not when just doing hatha.

I like both disciplines, and feel that both have their strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn’t want to give up one for the other. But if you want to really relieve your mental stress, try a little bit of kundalini yoga every day. It’s fabulous.

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I was looking for a video that explained breath of fire to email a client. The first one I found was long-winded and a bit tedious to get through…just get to the instruction! So I was happy to find this clip on YouTube…she teaches you breath of fire in a very simple manner, in one minute:

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Gurmukh explains how to do the Kriya of Liberation meditation from kundalini yoga:

Note: I’ve been getting a lot of comments on my arms lately…about how in shape they are. I do believe it’s from doing all those kundalini yoga kriyas and meditations that involve holding or moving the arms for various lengths of time. So try it and stick with it!

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I had a terrific experience when I took Liz Franklin’s Yoga in Chairs training. Liz is one of the nicest, most genuine, and thorough teachers you’ll ever find. Chair yoga is a fantastic addition to your yoga teaching arsenal – it means you can help seniors and people with physical limitations (including those in wheelchairs). It’s also another form of gentle yoga that has additional applications, such as stress reduction in the workplace. So if you are a yoga teacher looking to expand your offerings to include adaptive yoga, check out Liz Franklin’s Yoga in Chair training. Thus ends this Public Service Announcement to the yoga community.

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Here’s a real nice news story on kundalini yoga in Phoenix. It’s a great introduction:

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I have a little yoga peeve I’d like to share. There’s a woman who teaches classes at a gym I teach at, and whenever she sends out an email to the other yoga teachers, she often signs it with hugs and kisses, i.e.:

xox

And maybe a smiley face. Sometimes, if she’s in a hurry, it will just be a double or even a single x:

x

I feel like I have warped back into high school, and if she were writing the note by hand, every “i” would be dotted with a heart on top.

I’m wondering if she’s just really young (I have yet to meet her in person). But maybe coming from a more business-y background, I feel such communication is a bit too intimate as well as immature. As a feminist, I also feel that it infantalizes women when we communicate like that professionally. It makes us appear to be someone who should not be taken seriously.

Now, this is “just” yoga, but I feel that acting professionally and maturely should be something we strive for to a certain extent, and that includes communicating to our work peers regarding covering yoga classes. We’ve got enough sleazy videos on YouTube now of “models” doing yoga in skimpy clothing…to me, yoga is something that should be treated with a small amount of respesct.

Or do I have a bug up my you-know-what? Thoughts and feedback are appreciated.

xox (just kidding!)

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I am happy to announce I am starting new public yoga classes on LA’s westside at the Gateway Portal for Health and Welness. These are all levels classes with a spiritual focus – one is an hour-long class where we focus on our intentions for the upcoming week. The other is a hatha yoga class with meditation. FIRST CLASS IS FREE!

For more information, please see:

http://yogareiki.com/schedule/gateway

PS I will be starting some classes in downtown LA in September…stay tuned!

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